The imputed righteousness of Christ doctrine basically states that God credits Jesus’ own righteousness to the one who allegedly believes in Him.  This necessarily would mean that one could believe in Christ to salvation even though they do not what He says (really, even if they do nothing of what He says)- since God allegedly looks at Jesus when He looks at the believer.  This is a deception which sounds very clever; and it is extremely popular.  However, it is refuted all over the Bible.  

Saving faith in Christ submits to His authority and follows Him as His disciple in walking in His narrow path to eternal life.  There is a Christian fight of faith and a Christian course to run which are not optional for those who want to inherit God’s kingdom and be spared from His eternal wrath.  The doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ lies and says that this narrow way in Christ is impossible to walk in or is optional to walk in.  It is a subtle open door for the dissemination of the ancient lie of the serpent “ye shall not surely die.”  The serpent said those words in the context of not needing to heed God’s authority and in giving a false license to partake of what God has forbidden.  

When the Bible speaks about imputed righteousness, it is not talking about Jesus’ personal righteousness being credited to the Christian.  

Look at what Jesus says to the Christian churches in Revelation 2:20-23: “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”  

The imputed righteousness of Christ teachers say that the Christian is wearing Jesus’ own garment which can never be defiled.  Yet look at what Jesus told Christians in the Bible- especially when He addresses the Seven Churches of Asia directly in Revelation chapters 2-3.  These things would be vain sayings if the Christian’s garment was Jesus’ own personal righteousness covering them.

Revelation 3:4-6: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments (the rest had obviously done so); and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Revelation 16:15 (Jesus says directly here): “Behold, I come as a thief.  Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”

When the Bible speaks about God imputing righteousness to someone, it is speaking about Christ’s blood atonement being applied to an individual to forgive and cleanse them of their sins.  

The atonement being applied is not Jesus’ own personal righteousness.  

It was Jesus’ own personal righteousness which made Him eligible to die an atoning death for mankind so that atonement through His blood could be offered to the world.  That atonement is only applied to individuals who exercise a living faith in Him. 

Abraham and David, the men whom the Apostle Paul mentions in Romans chapter four as examples of men who were saved by grace and did not have their sins imputed unto them due to their living faith (as opposed to something which they tried to earn from God on the basis of debt),  these were men who walked in a living, righteous faith before God.  They were only eligible for not having their sins imputed to them by God’s grace as long as they had an obedient heart to God’s authority.  And that would mean that they had no attachment to sin.   

This means that we need to actually walk by a living faith in Christ, continually submitting to God’s authority through Him and coming unto God through His High Priesthood in order to have our record kept clean before God.  We must walk in the steps of that righteous faith of Abraham, the father of faith, in order for our faith to be imputed to us for righteousness and make us partakers of Jesus’ blood atonement (see Romans 4:12).  

God thus told Israel in Isaiah 51:1-2: “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence (from where) ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence (from where) ye are digged.  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.”

Imputed righteousness of Christ believers will accuse those who don’t believe in their imputed righteousness of Christ doctrine of denying man’s need for Christ.  

Yet they deny man’s need for Christ in a practical way by their doctrine.  

If we could just believe in Him at one moment and have all our future sins forgiven because God allegedly sees Jesus’ record when He looks at us, then we could rebel against Christ’s authority for the rest of our lives (and that’s what the imputed righteousness of Christ teachers are doing) and we would never even need to seek His forgiveness again (and if the imputed righteousness of Christ doctrine were true, that would not affect our salvation since God saw Jesus’ righteousness when He looked at us).  

Such a doctrine though is nonsense.  It’s error is easily seen by how man is commanded in the Bible to turn from his sins in order to obtain an interest in Christ; and Christians are told over and over again that they must hold onto Christ, walk in the light of God’s Word by faith, and do God’s will unto the end in order to inherit salvation through Christ.  

Jude 3-7: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old (that is, in the Old Testament) ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.  Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”  

And then a little later in the book we read in Jude 14-15: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

All of the ungodly in word and/or deed will be judged by God in His wrath.  

Jesus Christ will not be a cloak for anyone’s ungodliness.

Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This warning was written to a Christian church; and the Christians were specifically told that this warning applies to them.  Such a warning would not, and could not, apply to them if Jesus’ righteousness was applied to them and God saw Jesus when He looked at them.  

Jesus certainly does not accept the morally wretched.  He rather calls them to repent that they might live unto Him and be delivered from their morally wretched state.

Revelation 3:14-22: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God (that is the “arche” or foremost of the creation of God; the first in rank- Jesus wasn’t created; He is the Word of God who was there in the beginning); I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment (clothing), that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

He came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21).   

To say that the passages about the corruption of the wicked apply even to those who are properly related to Him is really a denial of the victory of Christ’s mission and a denial of the true grace of God in Him. 

2 Peter 2:15-22 (speaking of false Christian teachers and their horrifying influence on those who give heed to them): “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass (donkey) speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

Ephesians 5:5-7: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no man deceive you (and the Apostle Paul is specifically writing to true Christians here) with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.  Be not ye therefore partakers with them.”

The Christian is still under probation.

The Christian’s salvation is not complete yet.

The Christian still has a course to finish which they are not guaranteed to finish without disqualification.

Consider also the Bible examples of failing to abide in Jesus.  Here are some of these.

John 6:66: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”  

They were offended by a hard truth which Jesus brought before them.

Matthew 24:9-13: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.   And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.    And because iniquity (that is, lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.   But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Matthew 13:20-22: “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.   He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”

Consider also the Apostles’ exhortations to those who received Christ in truth as they preached the Gospel.  These are different angles of faithfully exhorting Christians to abide (that is, remain or continue) in Christ.

Acts 11:22-23: “Then tidings of these things (that is, a great number of gentiles having turned to the Lord) came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.  Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.”

Acts 13:43: “Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes (gentiles who had converted to Judaism; and were now turning to Jesus Christ) followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.”

Acts 14:21-22: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

And James 1:22 says: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

Yet if God imputed Christ’s personal righteousness to people, there would be no need to be a doer of the Word.  It is clear the concept that God imputes Jesus Christ’s personal righteousness to anyone is a deception.

Why doesn’t the pastor who believes that Christians have the personal righteousness of Christ imputed to them just tell his church the obvious?  If you have the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, then there is no need to pay tithes at church- or even to go to church at all.  Yet they are highly unlikely to say this, though they continue to preach the doctrines of the imputation of the personal righteousness of Christ and unconditional eternal security.

Revelation 2:8-11: “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

The Christian’s need to exercise a living faith in Christ which causes faithfulness to His Word unto death proves the concept (and this concept is inherent in both Calvinistic and Dispensational theologies) that the personal righteousness of Christ imputed to the Christian is a lie.

Titus 2:11-14 says: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people (or, a special people to Himself), zealous of good works.”

This makes it obvious that if you forsake the terms of God’s grace you lose its benefits.

Many think that more grace means more looseness with sin is excused.  Yet the Bible rebukes this concept over and over and over.  Books such as Titus, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude are specifically dedicated to rebuking this concept.

Those who teach imputed righteousness of Christ doctrine and unconditional eternal security doctrine (of course these inherently go together)  will tell open heathens that the sins they are committing will send them to hell- yet they wouldn’t tell those in their own camp that they’ll go to hell for doing the very same things.  This breeds partiality, double standards, and hypocrisy.  

As was said earlier, when the Bible speaks about righteousness being imputed to a person it is speaking of God forgiving them and justifying them by Christ’s blood through the person’s own living faith in the true God (which if it is a really a living faith has turned into the way of holiness and righteousness in God’s eyes).  And contrary to Dispensationalist and Calvinist doctrine and theology, the Biblical basis for imputed righteousness stems from Old Testament men like Abraham and David regarding their obedient lives where righteousness reigned, sin was put away, and they were presently worshiping God in spirit and in truth as the Bible requires for anyone who would be regarded as a worshiper of the true God who is in in His grace.  Romans chapter four indeed references them in teaching about imputed righteousness.  

The same chapter (Romans 4) also speaks of God not imputing sin to the faithful.  It does not speak of a person being cleansed by Christ’s blood and God seeing Jesus Christ when He looks upon them (this is the false concept of double imputation).  

Romans chapter four in its context is an elaboration of what is said in the closing verse of Romans chapter three.  

Romans 3:31: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

Paul goes on to prove in Romans chapter four that a person need not be physically circumcised in order for God to impute righteousness to them (that is, to forgive them through Christ whom even the people in the Old Testament were saved through due to the anticipation of His eventual atoning death which God had promised since Genesis chapter 3 when He told the serpent that the seed of the woman would bruise his head while the serpent would bruise the seed of the woman’s heel).  

Paul did not say in Romans chapter 4 (or anywhere else) that a person could be forgiven as a persistent, disobedient, unholy sinner.  Paul rather taught that a living, obedient faith is the foundation for being justified in God’s eyes (in terms of having Christ’s atoning blood applied to them), that such a faith can be in one who is not physically circumcised, and that physical circumcision only had significance in those who had come to such a faith in their hearts (that is, those who are circumcised in their hearts).  

Abraham was circumcised at heart before he was physically circumcised because he had a faith which corresponded with what circumcision signified when God commanded it of Abraham.  Circumcision signified the resolve to believe and trust God, and to quickly do what He says as a result of believing and trusting Him- even unto suffering and reproach.  Abraham had such a faith when he was circumcised in Genesis chapter 17; and he maintained it so that he offered up Isaac at God’s command in Genesis chapter 22 (many years later).

James 2:19-24: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?  And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

You see how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.  It must stem from a repentant, obedient heart towards the true God.  Ritualism, self-reform, and other attempts to earn God’s favor cannot save someone. 

The reference to righteousness being imputed to David in Romans chapter four is from Psalm 32.  There is nothing said there about God imputing the righteousness of another to the blessed person who is forgiven (that is, who does not have sin imputed to him).  Such a person truly trusts in the Lord by confessing and forsaking their sin without guile in order to be taught of Him.  Read the Psalm and you’ll see that.

David also wrote in Psalm 66:18: “If I regard iniquity (lawlessness) in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

John 9:31: “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”

If God sought to emphasize that the imputed righteousness of Christ is what we need to save us near the very end of the Bible, then He did a really, really bad job of that.

Revelation 19:6-8: “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”

Revelation 21:27: “And there shall in no wise enter into it (the New Jerusalem; Christ’s eternal kingdom) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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